Kakashi's Wisdom
by Lotus Aia
Summary: Kakashi sits his students down for a bit of 'serious learning'. But in reality, he sets them up with a joke for his own amusement.


Hey hey! What's up? That's all I have to say.

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Kakashi's Wisdom

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Kakashi ushered his students to sitting, his face stone serious in preparation for the last of their training. "Alright, I have a short quiz for you." He examined his tired, worn and beaten students, all of whom looked ready to drop from exhaustion. There would have been a unanimous and collective moan at the word 'quiz', but none could pull the energy from their inner sanctums.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto who was splotched in dust and dirt, then noticed his own arm was bleeding. Sakura had noticed as well, but didn't even have the power to fuss over the wound for her crush. Naruto, the blonde wonder and exuberant ball of energy, stared at the grass before falling face first into a few leaves.

Kakashi sat down on the grass to join them and put his hands on his knees, business like. "It's a word problem." he informed, giving level stares to each of his young little genin. "Are you ready?"

"Nn." Was the agreed response from his students, the only which to voice the approval being Sasuke.

"Okay." Kakashi leaned forward, manor emanating serious learning abilities. "You are on a horse, riding at a constant speed. In front of you is another horse with someone aboard, riding at the same speed as yourself. To your left is another horse with a rider, going the same speed as you and the horse in front of you. Behind you is a horse with no one riding it, but keeping the same constant speed. To your right though, is a severe drop off, a sharp cliff even. The horses are all packed tightly to your sides, allowing no escape. Now how do you get out of this dangerous situation?" he looked so stern, as if there was a punishment if they got it wrong.

Sakura piped up quickly, "But are the other riders dangerous?"

"You don't know." Kakashi replied solemnly.

"Back off and hope the horse behind you follows, if it doesn't have a rider." Sasuke murmured, eyes thoughtful.

Sakura nodded in agreement, "Yeah, a riderless horse is the weakest link."

Kakashi shook his head in disappointment. "Nope."

Naruto suddenly grinned and sat up a little, then glanced at Kakashi and thought better of voicing his childish answer. He flopped back down in the leaves and lay there, semi-thoughtful.

Sakura looked slightly panicked, "Why wouldn't you go after the riderless horse?"

The teacher didn't speak, leaving it to his students to decipher.

Sasuke brooded further, "It would be easy to escape to the side, maybe catch the cliff?"

Kakashi continued to look disappointed, finally glancing to Naruto, "Any ideas?"

The kitsune looked generally aggravated at being bothered. "No! This is stupid! What's the answer?" he demanded angrily, fist hitting the ground.

Their sensei observed each student, all of them nodding in agreement to be told.

He crossed his arms and sat up straight. "The answer? Wait till the merry-go-round stops and get off when the instructor tells you to!"

Faces changed from curious, to shocked, to outraged in point three seconds. They glanced to each other in disbelief and fury. How _dare_ he pull a prank on them. He beamed brightly to his students, "I'm very disappointed in y-"  
"DAMNIT I THOUGHT OF THAT!" Naruto raged, arms flailing to rip at his hair. "I thought of that, I did, I really did! But I didn't wanna say it because you looked like you'd get mad!" he howled in frustration.

Kakashi patted him on the shoulder. "Of course you did."

"I'm serious!"

"Chyeah right, Naruto, give it a rest." Sakura scowled, then glared at her sensei. "That was mean!"

Sasuke could only grumble beneath his breath, wondering vaguely if Naruto really did think of the answer. It really was something he'd say.

Kakashi grinned happily and stood up. "It's my job to be mean to you three. Anyway, I have a date, so I'm letting you out early. See you all tomorrow, sharp at seven! And watch out for dangerous merry-go-rounds!" he poofed away, leaving a spiral of clouds and three angry genin.

"DAMNIT!" Naruto yelled to the trees, stomping off. "The one frickin' answer I know… and I don't say it! Kami-sama!"

Sakura followed, denying Naruto of ever being able to think of answer, especially one like that. He snarled back that he did know it, and she taunted him with his previous attempts at any educational question.

Sasuke was left, sitting cross legged in the grass on the training grounds and staring at the leaves Naruto's head had previously been occupying. He mulled the stupid joke around in his head again. '_Wait till the merry-go-round stops…'_ Sasuke snickered. That _was_ pretty funny.

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Does it earn a review? XD I thought it was funny... 


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